'N-liability regime to hit capacity addition'

India’s civil nuclear liability rules and their impact on nuclear capacity addition will dominate the meetings with the visiting US delegation and the representatives of Department of Atomic Energy, Atomic Energy Commission, Nuclear Power Corporation and Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

Meetings between the US India Business Council (USIBC) and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), which are leading the seventh Commercial Nuclear Mission to India, are slated for December 6-8 here.

Some senior scientists at the state-run Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) have conceded the liability rules will have an adverse impact on the country’s nuclear programme, which envisages capacity addition to 63,000 Mw by 2032 4,870 Mw.

S K Jain, former chairman and managing director of NPC, told Business Standard: “The Indian civil nuclear liability Act has hit the country’s nuclear programme and it has also hit Indian and foreign suppliers. Some of the leading Indian companies, who had been the backbone of India’s nuclear programme, have already conveyed that they may not be in a position to continue with supplying for the nuclear programme because the supplier of component are fabricated as per designs of NPC, which is responsible for the entire quality, assurance and acceptance during fabrication, construction and upkeep of components.”

Jain added the civil nuclear liability Act was to cover third party liability in the event of nuclear damage, and the aggrieved party should promptly get the compensation without the hassle of proving that they suffered damages.